Like Presbyterians, Episcopalians have to dump offensive Web page By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, October 28, 2004 Reminiscent of previous occurrences in the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church (USA) quickly dumped a women's Web page after it was exposed for what it was: a promotion of pagan rituals. On Oct. 26, Christianity Today published on its Web site a commentary by Ted Olsen titled "Episcopal Church official promotes idol worship." Olsen's commentary provided links to the denomination's Office of Women's Ministry and a ritual titled "A Women's Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine." Olsen quoted several parts of the ritual and noted that they were taken almost verbatim from a rite of Tuatha de Brighid, a Druidic clan that believes in the interconnectedness of all faiths. By Oct. 28, "A Women's Eucharist," which essentially celebrated the "divinity" of being female and appealed to the "Queen of Heaven," had disappeared from the Episcopal site. One part of the Episcopal ritual was to raise, lovingly, a plate of raisin cakes "made with our own hands; filled with the grain of life-scattered and gathered into one loaf, then broken and shared among many. We offer these cakes and enjoy them too. They are rich with the sweetness of fruit, fertile with the ripeness of grain, sweetened with the power of love. May we also be signs of your love and abundance." The Bible has a pointed reference to raisin cakes. Hosea 3:1-3 says, "And the LORD said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.'" "A Woman's Ritual" also calls for use of milk and honey in a communion-like ritual, which was a part of the 1993 Re-Imagining God gathering that the PCUSA financially supported and to which it sent many of its staff members. In 1994, the General Assembly of the PCUSA declared the movement was beyond the bounds of the Christian faith. In 1999, The Presbyterian Lay Committee disclosed that the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, an official part of the denomination, had included on its PCUSA Web site links to pornographic and homosexual sites. Like the Episcopal women's pagan ritual, the PCUSA quickly unlinked the off ramps to pornography. Furthermore, a General Assembly-mandated Presbyterian task force investigated the network and ordered that it get better supervision and theological direction. The network's published materials – which also proposed goddess worship – were cashiered. Margaret Rose, director of the Office of Women's Ministries for the Episcopal Church, responded to the Christianity Today commentary by taking Olsen to task: "We profoundly regret that Christianity Today did not contact us before making claims such as, '…leaders of the Episcopal Church USA are promoting pagan rites to pagan deities,'" Rose said. "The resources listed on our Web site are not approved liturgies of the Episcopal Church. These liturgies are intended to spark dialogue, study, conversation and ponderings around women and our liturgical tradition. There is quite a difference in presenting resources for people's interest and enlightenment and promoting resources as official claims of the Episcopal Church. Only General Convention has this authority." Rose did not apologize for posting a pagan ritual on the Episcopal Web site. Instead, she said, the material "was sent to us in good faith in response to our recent call for resources. We regret we did not realize that the [Druid ritual] material was copyright protected. Proper notifications were not included by mistake and so the page has been withdrawn from our Web site." Christianity Today followed up today with another commentary by Olsen. This time, he noted that two Episcopal rectors – Bill Melnyk and Glyn Ruppe-Melnyk of Pennsylvania – are writing pagan rituals under the pseudonyms "Oakwyse" and "Glispa." "As it turns out, the Episcopal rector who submitted the ceremony to the Episcopal Church's Web site is the same woman who wrote it for the neo-pagan site," Olsen said. "In her Episcopalian life, she goes by the name Glyn Ruppe-Melnyk. For her neo-pagan stuff, she's Glispa." Oakwyse (Rev. Bill Melnyk) and Glispa teamed up for what's called a Wiccan Lunar Ritual. One line from that ritual is, "In the Face of the Moon we honor Our Lady, who was of old called among humankind Isis, Artemis, Astarte, Aphrodite, Diana, Mary, and by many other Names." Jesus did not make the list.

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